Kidnapper who abducted Bandra boy in 2010 arrested

A notorious kidnapper who had abducted a child in 2010 and later escaped the city after being arrested for his crime and posting bail, has finally landed in the police's net again.

Pravin Singh had threatened to murder the child he had kidnapped in 2010, after the boy's parents went to the police for help

The man, along with his two accomplices, had kidnapped the boy from Bandra and had almost murdered him before police made a timely intervention to nab the gang. During proceedings of his case, he fled to Nallasopara and became a builder. Unit IX of the Bandra Crime Branch made the arrest this time.

The case
The accused was identified as Pravin Chabinath Singh (30), who was the mastermind of a sensational kidnapping case from 2010.

According to Assistant Police Inspector Ashok Sawant of Unit IX, Singh, along with his two accomplices Sandeep Omprakash Singh (22) and Ajay Keshav Singh (28) had kidnapped a boy of ten from Bandra, on February 9, 2010.

Pravin had then called the parents from various public booths in Vakola, Andheri, Borivli, etc and demanded a ransom amount running into lakhs. He threatened to kill the boy if not paid.

For five days, the gang held on to the boy and continued demanding money. Pravin, who had kept a tab on the victim's house, saw plainclothes policemen investigating the case. Infuriated, he informed the police that he would kill the child.

Sawant said he told the parents they would only get their son's dead body. Based on information from sources and tip-offs, cops found the location where the child had been kept. "We surrounded the whole house in the Khadeshwari temple area in Bandra (West), where the boy was held hostage.

We arrested all the accused from the spot," Sawant added, recalling that cops managed to arrest the accused on February 15, the day they were going to kill the child by strangulating him with the wire of a steam iron. They had also found medicines and chemicals that the trio had used to keep the boy in an unconscious state.

Escape from city
Soon after the arrest, the trio was charged under sections 363 (kidnapping), 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).

They were produced in court and remanded to police custody. Inspector Mahesh Desai said, "After posting bail, Pravin left his Bandra home and fled to Nallasopara where he turned into a builder." Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Satardekar told mid-day, "After the accused got bail, regular court proceedings were going on.

But, three months after his arrest, Pravin escaped to Nallasopara where he started constructing small buildings. He completely shifted from Bandra. After a year or so, his accomplices were sent to jail where they are serving their sentences." Pravin was arrested after a source tipped them off about his newfound occupation and the police arrested him on Tuesday. He was handed to the Khar police, since the kidnapping case had been registered with them.